


The Open Road

by paradiamond



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: AU the magic box worked the first time, F/M, I think Nick would prefer hell, Sabrina POV, but Sabrina is still mad, so Nick is still around
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-26 05:10:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20736743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paradiamond/pseuds/paradiamond
Summary: Nick wants her back, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes. In fact, he insists on it.





	The Open Road

The Spellman house was changed, responding to an innateness of need and a few key spells laid down by her Aunts. With the school camped out in their living room, the house itself expended, folding outward and up, so that the living room was now more of a grand hall. Same with the kitchen. Same with everything. The magic heard their need and responded to it. 

Sabrina ran her fingertips along the pattern of the new wallpaper on the switchback stairs, following it up to what she was pretty sure was an extra library. But when she walked in and saw him, she regretted it, half in and half out the door when he looked up and spotted her. So it was too late to back out. It’d been too late for a while. 

Sabrina stepped inside, head held high. “Nicholas,” she said, easing herself the rest of the way into the room, and watched him flinch. A painful distance still sat between them, even after all these weeks. It was just like she said, that awful day in her room. She just couldn’t trust him. Not even if she forgave him, not even if she still loved him, at least a bit. 

His gaze dropped to somewhere around her shoulder and his hands worked around the book he held. “Spellman.” 

It had been like that since he moved in, and she’d had to track him down after the masquerade to let him know it was ok for him to do so. Her own fault, really, since she’d lost her temper during the rehearsal and told him he’d never be welcome in her space again. That she’d banish him from her sight. But the rest of the students were sheltering there and he’d helped her trap the Dark Lord in the Acharon configuration, so the least she could do was be the bigger person and take it back. Be civil. 

He hadn’t seemed thrilled. “A small mercy, I suppose,” he said, fidgeting with the sleeve of his fancy dress clothes. 

Sabrina dug her nails into her palm, feeling silly and exposed in her stupid dress. “If you don’t want-” 

Nick’s head snapped up. “No, I do, thank you.” The words were stilted. Out in the main room, the party raged, despite the danger they had just felt. That was the way of witches. Extreme darkness giving way to extreme highs. Delights. She should go back in there and make sure they weren’t throwing the Acharon between them like a beachball, or anything. 

But that had been weeks ago. Now Nick was here, living in some new wing of the house, and they were still strained. 

Sabrina walked along the unfamiliar wall, trying not to feel how he watched her. “What do you have there?” Even that simple question was charged, at least for her. Would he think that she was accusing him of something? Like she thought he shouldn’t be touching the books? 

Nick looked down at the book as if he was seeing it for the first time. “A history.”

Sabrina came a little closer and cocked her head to the side. “Oh, Lilith.” 

“Yes. I thought since she’s our new Mistress.” He shrugged. 

“Is she? You’d think we’d have heard something from her by now.” She turned away and busied herself with the shelves. Some of the books hadn’t been in the house before, she was sure of it. Had the house made them? Found them? 

Behind her, Nick hummed. “Well, I assume so.”

“Maybe she’s tired of the old way. Maybe we don’t have a ruler anymore.” She stopped her fidgeting and turned around to face him, hooking her hands behind her back. 

That earned her a real smile. “Maybe. We can be whatever we want.” 

Sabrina nodded, trying to dissipate some of the awkwardness through sheer force of will. “We’re free.” 

Nick’s gaze drifted over her so that she could feel it. “For the first time, your actions are your own. Your choices.” 

The air between them shifted, becoming fresher, but also more hot. A hyperawareness. She knew what he would say before he opened his mouth again. Before he straightened to his full height and crossed the room. 

“Sabrina I- I want you back. I want you to chose me.” Nick was shaking, his clenched fists not doing anything to hide it. This was hard for him. 

Well, it was hard for her too. 

Sabrina shook her head. “When did the Dark- when did Satan ask you to get close to me?” 

Nick closed his eyes. “Let’s not do-” 

“No.” That lit a fire in her. “You don’t get to decide this. When specifically did he ask you to show the pretty girl a good time?” 

It was like a cloud rolled over his face. When he opened his eyes again, they were harder, and easier to look into. “Months ago. Back when you still went to the mortal school and we barely knew each other. It seemed like nothing.” 

Sabrina jerked back like he’d slapped her, galled that he would lie to her, still, right after asking for her back. “No, it didn’t, or you would have told me about it later, when you did know me better. If it was nothing then there wouldn’t have been any reason to hide it from me!” 

“He specifically-” 

“Don’t.” 

Nick turned his face away, breathing hard. “This is…I thought it would be unbearable, not seeing you at all. I dreaded it all the way through that awful party. I thought that was the last time. But this is almost worse. I see you but I’m not welcome in you life anymore, not really.” 

Sabrina pursed her lips. “Well, it’s a big house now. I’m sure you can avoid it if it’s so inconvenient for you.” 

When she stalked out of the room, he didn’t follow her. 

***

The knock on her bedroom door rang out, sharp and crisp, and she knew it was him. They both waited for her to say something, Sabrina sitting on her bed, heart rate picking up, Nick on the other side of the door, still as a statue. But it was ridiculous. 

“Come in.” 

He opened the door, so familiar ducking into her room that her heart clenched in her chest. It was his eyes, open and ernest, that did her in. At the foot of the bed, Salem flicked his tail, annoyed on her behalf. 

Sabrina sat up straight. “Hi.”

“Hi.” Nick smiled, or tried to. It wasn’t in the least bit convincing, and she knew he could act. “I’m sorry about earlier.” 

She relaxed, somewhat. “It’s...fine. I know this has been weird.” 

A shadow crossed his face. “It’s not fine. I don’t deserve to ask that of you. I haven’t earned your forgiveness.” 

“Oh, well-” 

Nick put his arms behind his back and stood up very straight. “So I’ve come to atone to you in the old way.”

Sabrina ground her palms into her eyes. “Nick...” 

He sucked in a sharp breath, and she dropped her hands, still seeing white spots. “You said my name.” 

She twisted, a bit, wishing she had stood up when he walked in. It was too late now. “I never stopped.” 

“You did.” His eyes were pleading, and his voice was hollowed out. “You’ve called me Nicholas for weeks, like you don’t even know me.” 

She straightened her spine. “Maybe I don’t.” 

“Please, Sabrina,” he said, and she realized with a jolt that he hadn’t said her name either. He’d gone back to calling her Spellman, not Sabrina. Not for a long time. Now she’d broken the spell. He took two great steps towards her, and then dropped to one knee in front of her, at the side of her bed. “Please. Task me. Tell me what I need to do.” 

Sabrina sucked in a sharp breath, feeling the heat in her face. He was talking like an old warrior, and she was sitting in her childhood bedroom in her pajamas. “I don’t know that there’s any one thing you can do that can just-” She waved a hand, and the lights flickered. “I mean, you can’t just fix something like this with an act of service.” 

Nick’s eyes blazed. “I can try.” 

He was so still he looked carved from wood. Unbending. 

When Harvey lost her, he was a good mortal and just let her go. Nick wasn’t mortal. Neither was she, and she knew what he was asking of her. He wanted her to give him a quest, a magic task, like a faerie. The old way. 

She pressed her lips together, hard, and then let it go. Let the anger she’d buried fill her up. It had seemed a bit silly, after everything that happened, to stay mad at Nick. Considering that the world almost ended. But if he was going to force this conversation on her then he deserved what he got. 

“I should make you do something just as bad, ruin another one of your relationships.” 

“I don’t have any left for you to ruin.” He reached out, even though he wasn’t supposed to, and took her hand. It was like an electric shock. She jerked, but he held her fast. “I want you back. Tell me what I have to do to at least start winning you. Tell me what I have to do to earn your forgiveness, if not your heart. Now I’ve begged you like I’ve never begged anyone. Please.” 

This was why witches were no good at love. It made them weak, made her heart waver in her chest. 

“I want-” 

He leaned forward, her hand still folded in both of his. 

“I want to.” 

Nick nodded, determined and dark and devastatingly beautiful. “Then do. Think on it.” His eyes were shining. “We’re witches, Sabrina. We have all the time in the world, and when you know what you need of me, tell me and I will see it done. I’ll go wherever you need me to go, even to the bottom of the ocean or to the gates of hell. Then we’ll figure it out. I’ll win you back in pieces if I have to. Forgiveness, then trust, then love.” 

He turned her hand over in his hand pressed a kiss to her palm. “I’ll court you like the witches of old. And I will win you back.” 

Looking at him now, down on one knee like a knight, like he didn’t even feel the floor, she believed him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm at paradiamond.tumblr.com (:


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